Ultrafundamentalist Sects and Child-Abuse

Lowell D. Streiker

Faith Maims, Blinds, and Kills only God could cure her and that it would be an act of rebellion aith heals. Or so contend believers in spiritual healing and against Him to use medicine for the purpose of healing. Fdeliverance. Faith also maims, blinds, and kills according According to an Associated Press news story: to recent reports of court cases and legislative matters con- cerning cult and sect groups. Wearing a blue gingham dress and walking with crutches, the girl gave her testimony Saturday from a couch in the judge's On July 2, 1983, Faith Aliano, age ten, died in Woodbury, chambers, answering lawyers' questions in a soft, breaking New Jersey, of complications from untreated juvenile diabetes. voice. Her parents, members of "an unorganized religious sect," hid "I believe that I can be healed without taking treatments her body and held daily worship services, praying for her resur- and all that." she said. "I don't care what the doctors say." rection. On September 12, the body, now partially decomposed, Asked by a state lawyer if-she was ready to die, she with skin as tough as leather, was discovered by the police. A replied, "When the Lord gets ready for me."' local superior court judge gave the parents three days to arrange for the burial of the child. He said that if they refused, In December 1982, an Oklahoma jury acquitted the he would "consider the county's application" and appoint an parents of a nine-year-old boy of charges of manslaughter administrator authorized to bury the child.' Three days later, arising from the child's death from a ruptured appendix. The the couple appeared in court and informed the judge that they parents, members of a sect known as the Church of the First refused to comply with his wishes. Mr. Aliano explained: "God Born, were indicted for refusing medical treatment for their said she will come back and that is what I believe." He added: son. The parents argued that their religion prevented them "When the people see her come back to life, 1 trust they'll from seeking medical help. The jury's verdict was based on the begin to believe in God again, because as sure as we're sitting judge's ruling that Oklahoma's laws concerning religious in this courthouse, God is going to raise her." The parents exemptions from child abuse laws could also apply to the were given six days to comply with the order.' couple. Public outcry over the verdict led the Oklahoma legisla- At the same time, in Knoxville, , a state appeals ture to revise these regulations. Under a new state law, enacted court delayed its decision on whether twelve-year-old Pamela in April 1983, belief in and practice of spiritual/ Hamilton should be forced to undergo medical treatment for may no longer be used as a defense in cases of alleged child Ewing's sarcoma. Physicians testified that the girl would die abuse. According to Charles Green of the Philadelphia within nine months unless she received immediate chemo- Inquirer, the legislature decided that "religious exemptions therapy and radiation treatments. Her father, Larry Hamilton, would not apply in cases in which the lack of medical care pastor of the thirty-eight-member Church of God of the Union could result in permanent physical damage to a child."' As the Assembly in La Follette, Tennessee, said that he would go all author of the statute state Senator Tim Leonard explained, the way to the Supreme Court to keep his daughter from "My argument was the child's constitutional rights to life over- receiving medical care. Pamela and her parents believed that ride the parents' constitutional rights to freedom of religion."` A similar case in Colorado had a starkly different out- Dr. Lowell D. Streiker is come. The founder of a sect called " Through Jon and executive director of the Judy" were sentenced to three years' probation for allowing Freedom Counseling Center their child to die of pneumonia. The judge overturned the in Burlingame, California, exemption, claiming it applied only to recognized religions. which has helped more than The case is being appealed.' I wonder if the judge realized that 1,000 families throughout the he was involving the state in determining what is and what is world whose lives have been not acceptable religion, a task which is clearly forbidden by disrupted by cults. He is the the United States Constitution's declaration: "Congress shall author of several books, make no law concerning the establishment of religion." Surely including Mindbending and the Colorado legislature cannot limit religious freedoms to a The Gospel Time Bomb list of established mainline faiths. (forthcoming). On September 29, 1982, a provincial judge in New Carlisle, Quebec, sentenced Roch Theriault (also known as "Moses"),

10 FREE INQUIRY "Society's first obligation is to protect the lives and the House of Judah religious camp in Allegan, . liberties of its citizens, particularly those who cannot Sixty-seven children were taken from their parents and placed protect themselves. All other liberties, including reli- in state custody, pending an investigation into the alleged beating death of a twelve-year-old child at the camp. In subse- gious freedom and the right of parents to determine quent television interviews, the House of Judah's leader, the care and education of their own children, flow "Prophet" William A. Lewis, justified the beatings as the "will from this first obligation." of God." He explained that the parents had to make a choice of obeying God and beating their wayward child in accordance with the or not beating him and risking the eternal dam- the leader of a "doomsday religious cult," to two years in nation of the child's soul. He stated that the parents bore no prison in connection with the beating death of a child and the responsibility for the child's death because God had told them castration of a cult member. Theriault had pleaded guilty to a to beat the child. Lewis explained: "God killed him because charge of criminal negligence in the death of two-year-old God doesn't like bad children."10 Samuel Giguere, the son of members of the cult, and to a On December 2, 1982, Larry and Lucy Lonadier, members charge of bodily harm stemming from the castration of cultist of a seven-member adult religious commune located in their Guy Veer. Veer, who actually beat the child, was found not home in Rensselaer, , pleaded guilty to involuntary guilty by reason of insanity and placed under psychiatric care.' manslaughter in the beating death of their three-year-old son, On August 2, 1983, Stuart Green, twenty-eight, and his Bradley. The parents were told by a third commune member wife, Leslie, twenty-five, were sentenced to one year in jail and that beating the boy with a paddle would save the child's soul. fined $1,000 upon their conviction of involuntary manslaughter Larry's brother, David, testified that Steven Jackson, who is in the fatal spanking of their two-year-old son. The child, also charged with involuntary manslaughter in the child's death, Joseph Green, died of shock October 5, 1982, after his parents urged the Lonadiers to beat Bradley. According to David, had spanked him for two hours with a wooden paddle for Jackson would say "a butt isn't anything compared to a soul. refusing to apologize for striking another child. The incident If you didn't discipline your child, he would probably go to occurred at Stonegate, "a self-styled Christian commune" hell."" located at Kabletown in Jefferson County, West Virginia. In 1983 a major church-state dispute emerged in several According to a Washington Post article, the child was states, including Arkansas and , concerning the right of taken into the farmhouse: other children and adults formed a civil governments to regulate residential child-care facilities run circle, while his mother held him and his father spanked his by religious organizations. In may 1983, the Arkansas Child buttocks with a foot-long, half-inch-thick wooden paddle. The Care Facilities Review Board rejected rules allowing spanking beating continued until the child turned pale. His father took in child-care facilities. In so doing, they set aside earlier "emer- him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.' gency rules" that allowed spanking under certain circumstances. Judge Frank DePond said it was "incredible" that he could Some religious groups claimed that they had been "stabbed in not impose a stiffer penalty. The sentencing was interrupted by the back" by the review board's action. The Reverend Glenn a man who said that the Greens should be tried for murder. Riggs, president of the Arkansas Christian School Association He later apologized. and pastor of the Hot Springs Baptist Temple, said he "was In imposing the maximum sentence, Judge DePond told shocked when 1 learned that the board reversed its commitment Stuart Green: "It is clear that this court had no control over to the emergency promulgated rules. "We believe we are man- the indictment for the crime you were charged with, but this dated by our faith . . . to spank," he told the Board. "We court finds it incredible that the calculated, deliberate spanking believe that very firmly, and we will pursue our faith whether of a two-year-old child over a two-hour period would result in the Board likes it or not." He added, "Simply by the act of an indictment for involuntary manslaughter, a misdemeanor." your vote you can strike out a basic doctrine of our faith.' The judge added: "By entering a plea of guilty you have Elsewhere in Arkansas, Tony Alamo and the members of admitted that you killed another human being, a defenseless the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation keep vigil two-year-old boy. your own child. It is a sad day for our around the clock in a prayer room inside the Alamos' sprawling society when a court must intervene to protect a child from its mansion. They kneel and pray before the coffin containing the own parents." the judge continued. "Joey's fate is out of our embalmed remains of Susan Alamo, who died of cancer over a hands today, but your fate is not." year ago. They are patiently awaiting the resurrection of the Addressing himself to Mrs. Green, the judge declared: controversial female evangelist. "You abandoned [your] duty when you sat within arm's length Last summer, Tony and his followers began actively of your husband and son, holding and caring for someone recruiting unwed mothers in major cities of the north and else's child, while your own child was slowly being beaten to south. Posters appeared by the thousands appealing to unwed death." He added, "You could have said `stop; or `don't.' mothers not to murder their unborn children. Instead, they Indeed, you had a duty to interfere."' were urged to accept Tony's offer: "We will pay for the delivery An Associated Press news photo, which appeared in news- of the child and raise the child until he or she is an adult, papers on Sunday, July l0, 1983, shows Michigan state educate the child and pay all expenses until fully grown." When troopers removing a wooden stock that was confiscated from I learned of this campaign, I contacted media acquaintances,

Spring 1984 11 suggesting that they look into the matter. Like Arkansas Assis- The compelling interest of the state ... is the protection of its tant Attorney General Robert Waldrum, I thought that the children from hunger, cold, cruelty, neglect, degradation, and Alamos' Christian Foundation might be involved in a black- inhumanity in all its forms.... To fulfill this responsibility, market adoption racket. However, our best intelligence informs the Legislature has elected to impose licensing and inspection us that Tony is raising "volunteer" workers for his many busi- requirements. To these requirements, the [Cowells) free exercise ness enterprises. It would appear that the mothers are required rights must bow; the balance weighs heavily in favor of those unfortunate children whom the state must protect." to surrender their infants to married couples in the group at least for two years and until the mothers marry someone "acceptable" to the group, i.e., a dedicated member. In seeking the intervention of the Supreme Court, When Arkansas state social services officials obtained a attorneys for the Cowells argued: "This appeal concerns the court order to examine the foundation's child-care facilities, right of religious persons to create a totally religious environ- they discovered a facility but no children. According to ment for children, secluded from all worldly matters, in which Wald rum: the basic tenets of the Bible are taught and practiced." Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan deemed the appeal to reli- Tony has said there were at least 70 children. There were gious prerogatives as a way to dodge state licensing require- none. We found 17 little beds and four cribs and two potty ments "patently meritless." He explained: "The freedom of the chairs and one commode. The only heat was from a wood- [Cowells] to believe as they see fit remains inviolate, but their burning 55-gallon drum. We believe the women were to have freedom to act in society is not inviolate and is subject to their babies in Memphis. Then they would come to Alma reasonable regulation by a state for the protection of the society [Arkansas] to be prosyletized and sent to work. The mother which extends the right of religious freedom." gives the child to Tony." In November 1982, Lester Roloff, the fiery evangelist whose radio preaching supported controversial homes for On September 8, 1983, I received a letter from a legislative rebellious children, was killed when his private plane crashed. analyst for the Florida House of Representatives. Shortly the In 1973, it was alleged that girls at his Rebekah Home were House was expected to conduct a "sunset review" of statutes beaten and starved. Roloff conceded that the girls had been relating to the licensing of residential care for dependent chil- paddled and whipped for misbehavior. He maintained that dren. Current law, which expires in 1984, requires licensing, such discipline was meant to save their souls. "There's nothing with no exemptions except for legal guardians or relatives, for wrong with handcuffing a girl to keep her from going to hell."j5 all persons or agencies caring for children away from home. When state officials insisted that Roloff obtain licenses for his During the 1983 session of the legislature, an amendment was homes and maintain state standards, he refused, claiming that offered that would permit an exemption for a church-related the licensing requirement was "Communistic" and violated reli- agency that met basic health and safety standards. The amend- gious freedom. Upon learning that the Supreme Court had ment was attacked by Florida's two largest Protestant denomi- ruled against him, Roloff closed the facilities temporarily and nations, the Southern Baptists and the Methodists, and was reopened them under the aegis of his People's Church. In defeated. Totally opposed to the licensing requirements were 1981, a state court ruled that the church could operate the small sectarian groups that run their own facilities. It is their homes without a license.''' position that they are answerable only to God and not to civil During the past two years, a majority of our cases at authority. "We recognize no law but God's," they told the Freedom Counseling Center have involved ultrafundamentalis- legislature. tic sects—offshoots of older charismatic groups that practice The appeal to a higher authority than the state has been , healing, and deliverance and believe in made repeatedly by ultrafundamentalist, independent sects in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In several instances, recent years. Numerous statutes that inconvenience the faithful extreme child abuse, wife-beating, and avoidance of required or restrict their freedom to discipline their children or deny medical treatment, such as inoculations, removal of operable them access to medical care or state-mandated education have tumors, setting of fractures, chemotherapy, etc., have been been challenged. In most instances, the outcome has been iden- reported to me by my clients. The saddest record of any of tical to the United States Supreme Court's decision in the case these groups is that of Faith Assembly or "Glory Barn," which of Reno County, Kansas v. William and Carol Cowell, also has its headquarters in the Warsaw, Indiana, area. According known as Heart Ministries. On October 6, 1980, the Supreme to several newspaper accounts, at least fifty-two people-- most Court left intact a lower court decision barring the Cowells of them infants and children—have died as the result of fol- from running the Victory Village Home for Girls. Since 1972 lowing the teachings of the group. Faith Assembly, which was the Cowells had been operating the home and a related reli- founded ten years ago by the Reverend Hobart Freeman (who gious school. State officials brought the Cowells to court in is today its pastor), has about two thousand members. They 1977, asking that they be prohibited from running the home are discouraged from seeking medical attention on the grounds unless they obtained proper state licensing. that only God can heal and that using medicine is evidence of On April 9, 1979, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld a lack of faith. trial court order that, in the absence of a license, the home be Reporters Jim Quinn and Bill Zlatos of the Fort Wayne shut down. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled: News-Sentinel have disclosed that

12 FREE INQUIRY

tos

There have been twice as many medically unattended deaths Pho

as previously reported among those adhering to Freeman's Wide teachings. ld Only a small fraction of the 52 known victims were old r

enough to understand the teachings of Faith Assembly. Wo P

An even smaller fraction made their own decision to shun A medical treatment. One victim asked for a doctor a few hours before her death, but no doctor arrived because her husband and friends decided prayer was best for the woman. They prayed for her for hours after she had died. Faith Assembly deaths were found in Indiana. . , . Michigan and . Seven families suffered more than one death. The families accounted for 18 of the 52 deaths. Two of the families lost three members each."

Other newspaper accounts report that a twenty-week-old fetus Self-proclaimed prophet William Lewis of the House of Judah in Allegan, Mich., brandishes instrument of punishment. was buried in a backyard in a shoe box; babies and their mothers were dying in childbirth while registered nurses looked child abuse aspects of the matter (infants and children have on and did nothing; children have died of chicken pox com- accounted for twenty-eight of the fifty-two reported deaths) plications; one girl was denied treatment for a massive tumor and inquiries as to whether the "unlawful practice of medicine that destroyed one eye and finally killed her; a forty-year-old contributed to the deaths.' At least one legislator has indicated diabetic stopped taking his insulin shots and died four days that he will introduce legislation designed to prevent the deaths later.'" In November 1982, Leah Dawn Mudd, age five, was of children whose parents belong to Faith Assembly. removed from her home by court order so that doctors could On May 25, 1983. the New York Interfaith Coalition of remove a cancerous tumor as big as a basketball from her Concern About Cults, meeting at the City University of New abdomen. Earlier the girl's four-year-old sister had died of a York, issued a statement decrying the abuse of women and tumor. In July 1976. Alice Rogers, twenty-three. a pregnant children "in many destructive cults" and urging law enforcement church member, bled to death after two days of labor. No officials to "do all within their power to ensure that these doctor was called. victims receive the full protection of the law as applied to their health, education and welfare."2 ' The Coalition consists of Can Anything Be Done? representatives from the Council of Churches of the City of New York. the Greek Orthodox Archdioceses of North and What, if anything. has been done about this apparent epidemic South America, the Jewish Community Relations Council of of child abuse and neglect? There have been a number of New York, the New York Board of Rabbis. the Queens significant developments some of which have been mentioned Federation of Churches, the Roman Catholic Diocese of New in passing. Courts have not been loath to punish offenders. York, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Appealing The media have certainly not ignored the issue. Oklahoma has to "recent research." the Coalition claims that growing numbers closed the faith-healing loophole in its child abuse laws, and a of children are being separated from their parents and siblings. Colorado district court judge has held that his state's exemption receive little or no natal or post-natal medical care, do not clause was unconstitutional. Further, the Department of Health have their births recorded, receive little or no education, live in and Human Services notified states in January' 1983 that it no crowded and unsanitary conditions, and suffer from inadequate longer required them to exempt religious groups from child diets that damage them physically and mentally. Moreover, abuse regulations. the Coalition contends, these children are often sexually Meanwhile, the Region V Resource Center on Children exploited and harshly disciplined (often to the point of death). and Youth Services announced at its Milwaukee headquarters The Coalition also recorded a similar litany of alleged indig- in May 1983 that it was willing to allocate up to 510.000 to nities suffered by women in destructive cults, including arranged stop the abuse and neglect of children in the Faith Assembly marriages, interference with existing marriages, inadequate pre- church. According to Adrienne Heuser. director of Region V: natal care, poor nutrition, delivery of children under unsanitary "It's our position that more can be done for the children conditions, lack of medical attention, and forced separation involved. If more people knew about the situation and how to from their children." deal with it, lives might be saved in the future." The funds But the Coalition's statement raised questions in many will be used for a public education campaign intended to pro- minds, to wit: Are "destructive cults" any more guilty of child vide information to local prosecutors. public health nurses. abuse, neglect than our society as a whole? Are cults any more welfare department officials, legislators. and members of the restrictive and abusive of women than America in general? general public.'" State officials have promised investigations of What is the data base for the generalizations made in the

Spring 1984 13 statement —scholarly research or anecdotal reports by ex-cult me each year. If there are three million adults involved in over members and deprogrammers? Is it fair to single out "destruc- twenty-five hundred cults, as Margaret Thaler Singer maintains, tive cults" rather than deal with the broader problem of the it would seem that the incidence of child abuse is low, although role of poverty, lack of education, societal stress, instability, specific instances are often brutal, dramatic, and horrifying. decline in respect for authority, distrust of the medical profes- As the former administrative director of Parental Stress sion, economic dislocations, and unemployment as contributory Service of San Mateo County, a multifaceted program for the factors in America's current epidemic of domestic violence and alleviation of child abuse and neglect, I am well aware that the neglect of health care? incredibly high incidence of child-beating, neglect, abuse, and An attempt at answering the question of whether the inci- sexual exploitation is the secret shame of our society. Even dence of child abuse/neglect is higher in cult groups than without authoritarian communal groups, America is beset with among the general population was undertaken by researchers a vicious overabundance of domestic violence, assaults (physical at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Since and sexual) upon women, children, and the elderly, and serious current cult members refused to return questionnaires to the neglect of health, nutritional, and educational needs. Or if one four researchers, the results are based entirely on responses of wants real horror stories, the observer should spend a few seventy-five former cult members. According to these data, the nights at any state mental hospital, home for the retarded, or researchers found that the children of cult members "tend to facility for juvenile offenders. be more physically abused and received fewer balanced meals Have years of exposure to such abuses jaded me to the than those of parents not in such sects."'a The researchers also offenses of cults and sects? By no means. Incidents like those reported a large number of atrocity stories to support the ex- enumerated above should be investigated, and where appro- members' claims. Accusations centered on alleged acts of priate, promptly remedied by action on the part of local police, beatings, confinement, physical punishment, enforced fasting social-welfare authorities, and the courts. Failure to permit and sleep deprivation, denial of medical care, humiliation, and needed medical attention for an ailing child or to utilize man- other psychological abuse. The report was attacked as one- dated preventive measures like small pox vaccination and other sided and biased by Professor Jeffry Hadden, chairman of the inoculations is a public health matter which must be dealt Department of Sociology of the University of Virginia. David with through the established channels of public policy. A cen- Bromley, professor of sociology at the University of Hartford, tury of jurisprudential experience with the Jehovah's Witnesses referred to other studies that have found that children in cults on the issue of lifesaving blood transfusions for minors should are not psychologically different from children in the rest of provide ample precedent for approaching the problem of ultra- society. Spokespersons for the Unification Church unequivo- fundamentalist rejection of medicine. cally denied the allegation of mistreatment of children made On April 18, 1951, the State of Illinois sought temporary by the survey's respondents.=` custody of six-day-old Cheryl Labrenz, the daughter of The rescinding of the religious exemption by the Depart- Jehovah's Witnesses parents. The infant was the victim of a ment of Health and Human Services has not been without medical syndrome that was destroying her red blood cells. opposition. The exemption had been largely the work of lob- Medical testimony established that the child would die without byists for Christian Science, a small but wealthy and influential blood transfusions. The parents, Darrell and Rhoda Labrenz, proponent of faith healing. The 1974 Child Abuse Prevention spurned the physicians' advice on the grounds that they were and Treatment Act read: "No parent or guardian who in good more concerned with their daughter's eternal salvation than faith is providing to a child treatment solely by spiritual means with her temporal existence. (Since 1944 blood transfusions . shall for that reason alone be considered to have neglected have been prohibited by the governing body of Jehovah's Wit- the child." Forty-seven states have adopted such exemptions.' Now that responsibility for such exemptions has been returned to the states, the Christian Scientists may be expected to be busy indeed. Noted child advocate Richard Krugman, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado and direc- tor of the school's C. Henry Kempe National Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, has indicated that he does not consider religion-related child abuse a serious problem. In his words. "I'd hate to see a lot of effort going into stamping this out when you compare 50 or l00 cases of this a year with the millions of children who are victims of child abuse.' It is hard to know if Dr. Krugman means that there are only 50 to 100 deaths a year in religious sects, compared to millions of such deaths in our society as a whole, or if he means that there are 50 to 100 known instances of child abuse in sects compared to millions among the general The father of twelve-year-old Pamela Hamilton, shown here with her population. About six cult- and sect-related child deaths and stepmother Ann, fought cancer treatment for his daughter based on probably hundreds of instances of child abuse are reported to religious beliefs. He was a minister in La Follette, Tenn. AP/ World Wide

14 FREE INQUIRY nesses on the grounds that the consumption of blood is pro- hibited in the Bible. The proof texts for this position are Leviti- cus 17:10 and Acts 21:25.) The Labrenzes were secure in the position that' even if their baby died, she would surely be resurrected by Jehovah. The court declared Cheryl a ward of the state for the time necessary to administer the lifesaving transfusions. The Labrenz case was the first of many involving Jehovah's Witnesses parents who refused to allow blood transfusions in life- threatening circumstances. In virtually every case, the courts have ruled that the state's right to preserve and maintain life transcends individual claims of religious freedom.' As the court ruled in the case of John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital v. Heston (1971), "there is no constitutional right to choose to die. . . . The State's interest in sustaining life . . . is hardly different than its interest in the case of suicide." Lester Roloff and the girls of his Rebekah home in Corpus Christi, The community, through its government agencies, social- Tex. It was charged that some girls were beaten and starved. welfare programs, legislatures, and courts, has the power and Dan F. Connolly/TIME Magazine the obligation to act. The reason for this has very little to do instances, leads to the dissolution of the cult. If a mother in with the nature of the groups in question, for society's first my community announced that tomorrow at noon she planned obligation is to protect the lives and liberties of its citizens, to immolate herself and her children in a shopping mall, and if particularly those who cannot protect themselves. All other the next day she arrived at the scene with cannisters of gasoline, liberties, including religious freedom and the right of parents the full coercive machinery of the state would be called into to determine the care and education of their own children, service to stop her suicide-homicide. If she justified her inten- flow from this first obligation. The very foundation of this tions on the grounds that God had told her to do it, the country is the recognition that the right to life transcends all response of the community would be no less tolerant. Unless other rights. All other freedoms must be governed by this prin- society protects those who are incapable of protecting them- ciple—in this or in any viable social order. selves, it abdicates its reason for existing. When that happens, Although the state may not interfere with the religious vigilantism as strident, fanatic, and harmful as that which it beliefs and opinions of its citizens, it can punish religious prac- opposes is all that is left. tices that are criminal offenses."' And under the law of most As we have noted elsewhere, a new kind of civil disobe- states, the failure of parents to provide medical care is a public dience is rampant, i.e., the systematic refusal to obey the law wrong. If the child is injured from such omission, the parents based on an appeal to higher authority. Deprogrammers prac- can be convicted of criminal neglect. And, if the child should tice this disobedience in order to "rescue" cultists and other die as the result of such neglect, the parent may be tried for nonconformists. And self-appointed interpreters of God's voice manslaughter." As a Pennsylvania court ruled eighty years wield "the will of God" as a magic shield to defend them from ago: income tax, property tax, zoning ordinances, health and safety regulations, traffic laws, and any other rules that inconvenience The common faith of mankind relies not only upon prayer, them. The religious man who recognizes no authority but God's but upon the use of means which knowledge and experience (as he interprets that authority for himself) is truly an outlaw. have shown to be efficient.... In certain diseases the individual He belongs to no society. The vast majority of religious indi- affected may be the only one to suffer for the lack of proper viduals and religious movements, ranging from most mainline attention: but in other cases, of a contagious or infectious denominations to the most radically innovative sects, recognize nature, they may be such as to endanger the whole community, that "the powers that be are ordained of God" and that it is and here it is the policy of the law to assume control and require the use of the most effective known means to overcome the obligation of each believer to "render unto Caesar the and stamp out disease which otherwise would become epi- things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are demic.... "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth God's." to himself," and the consequences of leaving disease to run The outlaws constitute a menace, without a doubt. That unchecked in the community is so serious that sound policy menace springs from the combination of loss of impulse-control forbids it.' and otherworldly ideology. People beat children because, under stress, they lose control of themselves, and not because the In more than a dozen cases involving abuses similar to Bible tells them to. The Bible, as always, is cited in justification those just listed, we have discovered that remorseless pressure of the indefensible. What happens all too often is that sect from the media, child-protective services, the police, and the leaders who are themselves child abusers institutionalize their courts throws the sects off balance, produces self-doubt and own weakness as a norm for behavior vis-à-vis women and dissension among members, unites the previously apathetic children. In groups with such leaders, the beating of the power- local populace in challenging the nonconformists, and, in many less is engaged in, methodically and deliberately, often while

Spring 1984 15 the entire group stands by as witnesses, offering its acceptance between the standards of such authoritarian subcultures and and support. When conscience, responsibility, and compassion the ethical norms of mainstream society are unavoidable. are destroyed by the passions of the angry mob, then per- sons-the members of the crowd as well as their victims- are reduced to a status less than human. When this happens, the acts that we are observing in today's fringe groups and on the part of deprogrammers are to be expected. They are the mani- Notes festations of the spirit of the social pariah, the dispossessed, the disinherited the behavior of those who have no stake in I. United Press. San Francisco Chronicle, September 20. 1983. p. 22. 2. Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, September 23. 1983. p. anything, no love of family, friends, reputation, or themselves. 33. Some cults and sects (but not all) are a haven for such people. 3. Associated Press. The Tintes (San Mateo. California). September The worst examples of child or spouse abuse occur in dooms- 19. 1983. pp. I and 10. day sects, groups that see themselves as the last generation of 4. Philadelphia Inquirer, May IQ 1983. Reprinted in The Advisor, vol. mankind. Why should one worry about the law or decency or 5, no. 4, August September 1983. p. 3. 5. Ibid. propriety or well-being if the world is coming to an end-and 6. Ibid. soon? 7. Associated Press, San Gabriel Va/levy Tribune (California). Septem- Look again at the list of newspaper reports described at ber 30. 1982. the beginning of this article. Is it significant that no incident in 8. Washington Post. October 18. 1982, p. A23. my 1982-83 files documents similar abuses by the Moonies, the 9. Associated Press. Washington Post, August 3. 1983. 10. Tribune. J my 9. 1983: The Advisor. vol. 5, no. 4, August Scientologists, Divine Light Mission, the Children of God, or September 1983. p. 3. the Hare Krishnas? At most, it tells us that ultrafundamentalist IL William Harms. Chicago Tribune. December 2. 1982. groups more readily lose control and lash out at those who 12. Jeff Waggoner. Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock). June 23. 1983. p. cannot protect themselves. However, clients drawn from scores 3 B. of groups, including the five just mentioned, have told me of 13. Chet Hippo. "Siege of the Alamos." People Weekly, June 13. 1981 p• 30. equally horrifying occurrences-many of which I have verified. 14. Associated Press. Topeka State Capitol-Journal. October 7. 1980. The list also discloses that the more familiar Bible-based groups 15. Time, November 15. 1982. p. 77. receive the censure of the agencies of social control, at least in 16. New York Times. November 4, 1982. some communities, long before the more exotic groups. For 17. Fort Warne News-Sentinel. May 2, 1983. See also Associated l'ress such groups draw their members not from wandering dropouts reports. May 3. 1983. 18. Globe, June 7, 1983. p. 7: Associated Press. November 24, 1982. or foreign visitors but from working adults with jobs and 19. The Advisor, op. cit.. p. 3. homes, perhaps right across your street. 20. Ibid. I should note that having to deal with the intentional 21. Ibid. infliction of suffering upon children and the deaths of medically 22. The Advisor. vol. 5. no. 3, June July 1983. p. I. unattended women and infants in childbirth constitutes the 23. Ibid. 24. The Advisor, vol. 5. no. 4. August September 1983. pp. I and 3. most emotionally upsetting aspect of my work. However, there 25. Ibid., p. 3. are two lessons I have learned from these disgusting realities. 26. Green. op. cit., loc. cit. The "religious immunity" provision is found The first lesson: No group can replace parents as sources of in the juvenile or criminal codes of most states. Illinois, Connecticut. and stable, caring love. The focus of the group is upon its purposes Washington mention only Christian Science in their laws. Several other and seldom upon the offspring of its members. Surrendering states have adopted wording that could only apply to Christian Science. i.e., exempting those who follow the "tenets" of a "well-recognized church" that the responsibility for child-rearing to a sect is like turning an offers "treatment" by a "duly accredited practitioner." It is incredible to me invalid over to a local bridge club. No group really cares. that such statutes escape the scrutiny of civil libertarians. These laws clearly The second lesson is a corollary of the first: In comparison constitute an "establishment" of religion. Ten years ago. California courts with an allegedly ultimate concern, all other concerns appear convicted parents of manslaughter who withheld insulin from their son on ignoble, unworthy, and mere distractions. When the group the basis of their religious beliefs. However. under California's exemption clause, it is legal for Christian Scientist parents to deny medical attention on purpose is not focused upon the next generation as their own the same grounds. and the world's hope for the future, children and women (in 27. Ibid. their maternal role) become radically devalued, useless, and 28. Barbara Grizutti Harrison, Visions ut Glory: A History and a expendable. As mere objects of little utility for the purpose of Memos ~ offehovah's Witnesses (New York: Simon and Schuster. 1978). pp. the group, they become encumbrances that sooner or later are 97-98. 29. Ibid. going to be damaged. 30. 1. H. Rubenstein. Law on Cults (Chicago: The Ordain Press. 1948 I have met loving, devoted, and nurturing parents in every [reprinted 19811). p. 107. type of cult, sect, commune, self-help therapy group, and politi- 31. Ibid.. p. 44. cal cell. 1 know exemplary parents who would never knowingly 32. First Church Christ Scientist. 205 Penn. 543. 550-1. 55 Atl. 536 abuse or deprive their children. But cult and sect groups are (1903). Sec also State y. Probst, /65 Minn. 36/. 206 N. W. 642 (/925). • largely governed by the whims of manipulative and powerful figures, to whom all commitments other than that to the man- This article is adapted from the muhor's forthcoming book, Mind bending: dates of the leader are of secondary importance. Friction Cults in the Eighties. that will he published this .summer by Douh/edar.

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